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Child Find

First page of the PDF file: Network1InitialReferralTimelineFINAL
First page of the PDF file: LetterEnsuringHighQuality

Federal and State laws require that school districts maintain a Child Find system for identifying, locating, and evaluating individuals with disabilities (birth through 21 years of age) within its jurisdiction who are in need of special education or related services.

Our Child Find efforts include advertising the availability of services through media, public notices, staff training, community health fairs and letters to private schools, physicians, nursing homes, group homes, and hospitals.

Special services are available to eligible infants, children, and young adults identified with a disability who may be experiencing difficulties in one or more of the following areas:

  • Auditory Impairment
  • Autism
  • Deaf-Blindness
  • Emotional Disturbance
  • Intellectual Disability
  • Other Health Impairment
  • Orthopedic Impairment
  • Specific Learning Disability
  • Speech/Language Impairment
  • Traumatic Brain Injury
  • Visual Impairment

Who does Child Find apply to?

This notice applies to persons residing in Texas who are:

  1. Residing in their homes or foster homes
  2. Not yet attending school or are attending daycare centers, public schools, independent schools, parochial schools, or are being homeschooled
  3. Highly mobile or homeless
  4. Suspected of having a disability even though they are advancing from grade to grade.

Who do I contact?

If you are concerned your child may be learning differently, please contact your child's campus principal or Dr. Adrian Guerra (Special Education Director) at (956) 849-1616 or by email at aguerra@romaisd.com

 

 

Child Find Regulations

IDEA B—Federal Regulations
34 CFR §300.11 Child Find

The Child Find requirements of the IDEA mandate that states design and implement processes and procedures to ensure children who are in need of special education and related services are “identified, located, and evaluated.” 34 CFR 300.111 (a).

34 CFR §300.111 Child find
  1. General.
    1. The State must have in effect policies and procedures to ensure that—
      1. All children with disabilities residing in the State, including children with disabilities who are homeless children or are wards of the State, and children with disabilities attending private schools, regardless of the severity of their disability, and who are in need of special education and related services, are identified, located, and evaluated; and
         
      2. A practical method is developed and implemented to determine which children are currently receiving needed special education and related services
         
  2. Use of term developmental delay. The following provisions apply with respect to implementing the child find requirements of this section:
    1. A State that adopts a definition of developmental delay under 34 CFR §300.8(b) determines whether the term applies to children aged three through nine, or to a subset of that age range (e.g., ages three through five).
       
    2. A State may not require an LEA to adopt and use the term developmental delay for any children within its jurisdiction.
       
    3. If an LEA uses the term developmental delay for children described in 34 CFR §300.8(b), the LEA must conform to both the State's definition of that term and to the age range that has been adopted by the State.
       
    4. If a State does not adopt the term developmental delay, an LEA may not independently use that term as a basis for establishing a child's eligibility under this part.
       
  3. Other children in child find. Child find also must include—
    1. Children who are suspected of being a child with a disability under 34 CFR §300.8 and in need of special education, even though they are advancing from grade to grade; and
       
    2. Highly mobile children, including migrant children.
       
  4. Construction. Nothing in the Act requires that children be classified by their disability so long as each child who has a disability that is listed in §300.8 and who, by reason of that disability, needs special education and related services is regarded as a child with a disability under Part B of the Act. (Authority: 20 USC 1401(3)); 1412(a)(3))